Tanjung Bungah residents: Why did project go ahead when DOE rejected it?

(The Star) – The Department of Environment (DOE) and state government should be held equally responsible for not stopping the project in Tanjung Bungah where a landslide occurred, said the Tanjung Bungah Residents Association.

Its chairman Meenaksi Raman said the DOE should have acted to stop the project after it had rejected the planning permission in January 2015.

“While the state is directly responsible for not stopping the project even after the DOE had rejected it, the department should have followed through (to stop the project),” she told reporters at the site in Tanjung Bungah on Monday.

“The rejection cannot just be the form of an advice or guideline,” she said, adding that the state was violating legal guidelines by allowing the project to proceed.

On Saturday (Oct 21), tonnes of laterite earth slid down from a cut slope at the Tanjung Bungah construction site at about 8.30am, burying 11 construction workers.

All the bodies have been recovered.